Graphic Narrative: “The PUA Artist”

The Female-Machine in Resistance

I intend to critically analyze how Ghost in the Shell, a cyberpunk Japanese anime franchise, resists gender stereotypes found in Western toys. I will compare male-machine gender representation in Western toys to Ghost in the Shell’s female cyborg protagonist, Major Motoko Kusanagi. As Stack and Kelly insist, the “media are a pivotal vehicle through which…

Child’s Play: More than Meets the Eye

I never gave a critical thought as to why certain toys belonged in certain aisles in Wal-Mart, and why some commercials only included boys in them. As a young boy I looked to my male family, friends as models of masculinity. Notably, my older cousin, who would join us, along with my aunt, on family…

Pop Culture, Meet Critical Literacy

We should be curious and skeptical about the cultural objects that we take for granted.  As a future educator, I believe that critical pedagogy prepares learners to nitpick the subtle cultural nuances that are blindly accepted and taken for granted. Popular culture artefacts, such as pop music, feature films, and television shows, are—I argue—complex literary…

Rapping about Resistance, Representation and Critical Media Literacy

The documentary film Reel Injun shows how the “media are a pivotal vehicle through which the social is continually recreated, maintained, and sometimes challenged” (Stack and Kelly 9). Similarly, rap music is the site of representational conflict and contradiction. Let’s take a listen to rap music. Rap is an evolving media that represents the African…

Traditional vs. New Literacies Teaching

This is the production 2 critical essay.